Day Four (Race day three)

Possibly because of the decent showers at Picnic Point, or possibly because this is only a 70-odd km stage, there's a more optimistic feel about the camp site this AM. We're still paddling on a "one stage at a time" basis, but that relieves that anxiety & focusses attention on the task at hand. The "in boat" plan has pretty much resolved itself, and we've decided to carry less water in the boat (we started off with 30 liters + individual bottles), because the water just gets too hot - and it really isn't practical to refill individual bottles from a 15 litre tank - , and focus on delivering cold water at as many stages as possible. The heat is a really big issue, more so in a way than the dehydration, and the coldness of the water coming on is the main value of it. (One of the boats that I'm crewing for, the current holders of the women's Hawkesbury classic speed record, i.e. serious pros, take less than 2 liters each for the day; contrast that with our original logistics which revolved around how to get twice that much on per person per day. Note also that yesterday (RD 2) I drank 6 liters of fluid, mainly water, over the course of the day) . Somewhat annoyingly, now that we have this plan in hand, we can't get up to Checkpoint Alpha today (relay teams only), but it is cool in the morning, so we're thinking/hoping that Bravo around 10:30 will be OK for the first water upload.

The start at Picnic Point is actually inside the camping ground, which makes for a relatively stress free morning. We can sleep in until 5:15.

We had some last minute pre-race excitement - the organisers SMS'ed our captain the night before about that start, but mobile phone coverage is patchy at best out here and she hasn't received it. (For grammarians, apologies about the tense control. Really, I hate the historical present, I do, but it just seems to keep slipping itself in). Anyway, the subject of the message was that the dragonboat wouldn't go around the corners on this section of the river, did we want to start downstream? This was about the time I started to fall out of love with the organisers, who had clearly spent about .3 seconds thinking about it.

1.) The dragon boat is shorter & narrower (considerably) than the two largest outriggers, both of which are starting at the start.

2.) Access to the river at checkpoints A or B is impossible for a half-tonne boat that comes off a 14m trailer.

3.) There is actually no bend on this section of river which is even remotely problematic (OK, we didn't know that until after we'd navigated it, but surely it's not beyond the wit of the organisers to know such things in advance. What would it take to check, about 30 minutes in one of the patrol boats?)

I put point B forcefully, and one of the longstanding volunteers said he couldn't see what the problem was (I'm not sure, based on later conversations with this guy, that his being correct was more than coincidence), so finally we ended up starting with all the others. (Not that some of the team weren't excited about starting downstream!)

You can see from the start picture (one of the later starts, not the 7 AM start) that the density of the trees/foliage has changed from the starts on the first two days. This is reinforced along the river; there are no more beaches, and the banks are (very soft) stone, dead branches and leaf litter. There are still recreational campers, but not actually inside the checkpoints and not so much on the literal edges of the river. It's a lot more picturesque, later the RD 3 trip is voted the most picturesque of the five.

It's not quite so easy for me though, because lugging eskies up & down those banks is tricky, and finding somewhere to get the boat in without running over submerged roots/branches is also more problematic. This is to a large extent offset by the fact that hanging around waiting, which I get to do at the 2nd and late checkpoint each day is more pleasant with trees to take shade under.

Very popular with the punters, and one of the race legends; apparently he's deaf and misunderstood paddle for pedal, and the original organisers didn't have the heart to take a stand. Whatever, he probably has the easiest run of it - he makes very good time every day and (it may be an act) looks extremely relaxed whenever I see him. I'm guessing he's the most photographed, unless Chris the paddleboarder has pipped him this year.

His is not the only maverick boat; the other similar design is a hand crank attached to paddle wheels (sorry, no pictures, it was a boat that seemed to come and go in mysterious circumstances, starting and finishing to its own timetable). Somewhat more artistic (including a whistle powered by compressed air), its owner apparently starts a different design every year and has finished twice in 17 attempts. He looked like he was pushing 60 to me, so no mean feat. I don't know about his other boats, but I gave him a hand at one of the checkpoints & this year's entry weighed a serious amount.

On the subject of age, the oldest competitor I've identified is 76. She is paddling in a three-legged relay team, so on the longer days she is paddling upwards of 40 km.

Left is Claire, from another of my five boats. For reasons that are completely obscure to me, kayakers don't wear gloves. None of them. This is a third day blister - Claire went on to win the First Aid tent award for blister of the tournament - waiting for attention in Echuca.

As well as blister of the tournament, Claire came third in the Women's section, just a squeak away on handicap (due to boat) from second.

Our dragon boat crew was pretty battered by the end of the day, but they made good time & seemed to have consolidated the technical lessons from RD 2. Post the large Chinese meal eaten in an Echuca park (the official campsite was a bit grim, but overflow seemed to be a precedent, and we happily went with it. It was a big advantage being able to get a car to the campsite early for scouting and setup), RD 4 looked distinctly possible.